


Happy birthday to us

by Dreamers_den



Series: Better together [2]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Birthday, Bonding, Friendship, NaNoWriMo, alien learning human stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-18 18:11:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16522151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamers_den/pseuds/Dreamers_den
Summary: Eddie is buying gift for Anne´s birthday and it makes Venom wonder about the whole concept of celebrating date of human birth. When Venom sulks because he has no such date to celebrate, it´s Eddie´s task to cheer him up.





	Happy birthday to us

After the whole drama with Life Foundation, Eddie was still trying to mend his life back together. Which included fixing things with Anne. They didn´t restart their relationship and they might never do, no matter what Venom says. But they learnt to be just friends and they soon settled in comfortable routine. Eddie even learned to like Dan, despite Venom was still pissed over the MRI incident and the fact that Dan stole Anne from them. But Eddie could see that Dan was good for Anne and he was glad that she had someone.

So, they remain friends. They call each other every week, occasionally hand around, go out for lunch (not to lobsters’ place, Eddie doesn´t ask, but he´s quite sure he´s banned from the place for life). Eventually, it stops being uncomfortable and they manage to actually have a good time together without regrets. Hence, when Anne´s birthday approach, Eddie plans to buy her a present and congratulate her, like a good friend would.

Little did he know that buying gifts would upset Venom.

**Why would you buy her soap? She smells clean. She surely owns soap.**

“It´s decorative soap,” Eddie murmurs to his shoulder, trying not to look like he´s talking to himself. They´re in fancy cosmetics shop, because he wants to get something nice to Anne, despite she´s not his girlfriend anymore. “Women like those.”

**It looks like rose. But smells like lavender. That´s ridiculous.**

Shrugging, Eddie set the rose-shaped soap down and went to look at gift baskets. He didn´t understand decorative soaps either, so he didn´t know what to tell to his symbiote. 

**Eddie. Hungry. Look at soaps later.**

“Just a minute,” Eddie whispered. “We can have burger later.”

**Steak.**

Eddie rolled his eyes over. “Burger. I can´t eat so much meat all the time.” He already ate too much chocolate. No point in making his diet even less healthy. If he let Venom chose, they would eat nothing but criminals, sweets and tater tots. The mere idea made Eddie shudder.

Eventually, he chose nice set of perfumed soaps for Anne. Once they were out of the shop, Eddie pulled the hoodie closer. The weather got chilly lately and neither Eddie, nor Venom enjoyed the cold. Speaking of Venom, he was rather quiet since the conversation in the shop. That wasn´t like the symbiote. He always had something to say, especially at the lunch time.

“You there, buddy?” Eddie asked, trying to ignore people glancing at him. 

**What is birthday?** Venom asked, sounding strangely small. From Eddie´s mind, he could find information about many human things, but some concepts were still too abstract for him and he needed Eddie to explain. 

Sighing, Eddie rubbed his chin. Explaining common things to alien could be more challenge than expected. Things which Eddie considered completely common were weird for Venom and the symbiote had hard time understanding them. “It´s something humans celebrate,” he said, trying to make it as simple as possible. “We celebrate the day when we were born.”

**Why?**

“Dunno. To show that we´re happy to live another year?” Honestly, Eddie never wondered why. As kid, he was just glad to get presents and later, he was already used to it and found it too normal to question it.

 **Do you celebrate your birthday?** Venom asked and Eddie could immediately feel the symbiote to probe his memories, browsing through the set of parties and family dinners. For a moment, he stopped at the memory of Piñata and watched the colourful paper horse to spill sweets.

“Sure. Everyone does, I think. Well, maybe not completely everyone, but most people do.”

**How do you know when to celebrate?**

The question surprised Eddie. And so did the strangely longing echo he got from Venom. It felt like the symbiote was actually upset by the idea of birthday, which Eddie didn´t quite get. He always liked birthdays, getting presents, hanging around with family and later with friends… it was nice and even now, being an adult and everything, birthday was still something Eddie looked forward to.

“I just… know when I was born. It´s on my birth certificate and my parents told me.”

**So, you have date to celebrate. By getting free stuff from people and eating sweets.**

“Ehm, sure. More or less.” Eddie expected Venom to ask more, but the symbiote turned quiet. He remained quiet during whole way to burger place and didn´t even comment on Eddie´s choice to get a cheeseburger.

Frowning, Eddie struggled against the urge to stare at his own reflection in the shop window. “You okay?”

**I don´t have birthday.**

“And that bothers you?” That was actually rather cute. Big bad men-eating alien sulking over not having birthday.

**You have birthday.**

“Yeah. And you do too, you had to be born sometimes.” Probably. Eddie would rather avoid discussing how baby alien parasites were made.

**Don´t remember.**

“Look,” Eddie said, ignoring a postwoman who openly stared at him seemingly talking to himself. “You can just choose a date and celebrate then. People sometimes do that too, for example when they adopt a pet and don´t know when it was born, they just give it a birthday.”

He felt Venom uncurl from the tight ball in his chest. 

**You can give me a birthday?**

Eddie tried not to chuckle at the idea of Venom being an adopted puppy. Sometimes, he acted like one – always wanting attention, begging for snacks and having no respect for privacy.

“Or you can just choose a date you like.”

 **We should share birthday,** Venom suggested eagerly. **We should share everything.**

This time, Eddie fondly laughed and a few people glanced at him. “Sounds good to me, buddy.”

 **We´ll have Piñata on our birthday,** Venom demanded. **And chocolate cake.**

Rolling his eyes, Eddie walked in their apartment building. He couldn´t wait to get home so he could talk with Venom without looking like a schizophrenic. Maybe he should be stricter and demand that Venom only talks to him when they´re alone (unless it´s urgent). But for the alien, everything seemed urgent.

**Will Anne get us present?**

“Probably.”

**She should. We are getting her the weird soaps.**

“She´s nice person,” Eddie retorted. “I think she´ll get us something.” The answer seemed to satisfy Venom. For a moment, he left Eddie to unpack the stuff he bought and put it away. He radiated the content and Eddie caught himself smiling while walking around the flat and preparing a snack for them.

 **We like sharing birthday,** Venom said suddenly, startling Eddie. **Thank you, Eddie.**

Eddie patted a little black tendril which grew on his shoulder. He felt symbiote´s happiness through their bond and he smiled. Maybe sharing birthday wouldn´t be so weird. He could probably get Venom a Piñata, the symbiote would surely love that. It could be even nice. “You´re welcome,” he retorted, patting the tendril agai

**Author's Note:**

> I loved the movie, so I might write a few more fics about it. Mostly "after" Life Foundations drama, short stories about Eddie getting used to having Venom in his head 24/7 and Venom learning to live among humans.:)
> 
> Leave a comment if you enjoyed it, it means a lot. And if you have any prompts you´d like to read, feel free to share them.^^


End file.
